Matthew Knies scores in OT for his second hat trick and the Maple Leafs beat the Lightning 4-3

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Matthew Knies scored a game-winning goal in overtime to record his second hat trick of the season, and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3 on Wednesday night.

Toronto opened up a three-point lead on Tampa Bay for first place in the Atlantic Division with four games left for each team.

Knies finished off his hat trick with 1:04 left in the overtime.

Mitch Marner had a goal and three points and Auston Matthews had three assists. Anthony Stolarz finished with 25 saves.

Oliver Bjorkstrand, Victor Hedman and Nick Perbix scored for the Lightning, which moved three points ahead of Florida for second place in the division. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 27 saves.

Toronto scored twice in the opening 3:33, with Marner scoring his 25th of the season at 1:13 followed by Knies off a rebound for a 2-0 lead.

Perbix scored with 1:02 left in the first period. Bjorkstrand tied it on a power-play goal 50 seconds into the third before Knies regained the lead on a Toronto power play at 2:02.

Hedman tied the game at 11:05 of the third on the power play.

Takeaways

Maple Leafs: Marner recorded his 202nd career multi-point game and passed Dave Keon for fourth most in franchise history. … Knies has 10 goals in nine career games against Tampa Bay.

Lightning: Center Luke Glendening left the game in the first period and did not return. … LW Jake Guentzel missed the game for family reasons.

Key moment

Brayden Point was cross checked by Bobby McMann and dropped the gloves with the Toronto forward to fire up his team. McMann earned the extra penalty on the play that led to Victor Hedman’s tying goal at 11:05 of the third.

Key stat

Toronto finished with 32 blocked shots.

Up next

Tampa Bay hosts Detroit on Friday and Toronto hosts Montreal on Saturday.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl